Laws

The Almanac offers original narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session since 1945. Arranged thematically, CQ Almanac organizes, distills, and cross-indexes for permanent reference the full year in Congress and in national politics. Authoritative coverage of the people, elections, legislation, and controversies in the U.S. Congress. Includes Comprehensive roll call votes for all major legislation tables, graphs, and charts. Browse by subject, decade, or by a particular year's table of content. Use "Policy Tracker" to explore a specific policy topic and see how it has changed over the years

"Beginning with the Continental Congress in 1774, America's national legislative bodies have kept records of their proceedings. The records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress make up a rich documentary history of the construction of the nation and the development of the federal government and its role in the national life. These documents record American history in the words of those who built our government."

FDsys contains Congressional record volumes from 140 (1994) to the present. At the back of each daily issue is the "Daily Digest," which summarizes the day's floor and committee activities. The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session.

Provides public access to the following collections currently available in FDsys: Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993 to Present), Congressional Bills (103rd Congress to Present), Congressional Documents (104th Congress to Present), Congressional Hearings (105th Congress to Present), Congressional Record (1994 to Present), Congressional Reports (104th Congress to Present), Federal Register (1994 to Present) and Public and Private Laws (104th Congress to Present). FDsys will eventually replace GPOAccess.

Project Vote Smart (PVS) is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in six basic areas, providing free, unbiased, in-depth information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting.

General scholarly legal database with current U.S., foreign and international law, law review articles, legal classics and historical documents. Provides fully-searchable and image-based text of over 500 law journals, Supreme Court Reports, Treaties in Force, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1977-2003) and the Federal Register (1936-1994).

Since its founding in 1802, the Jenkins Law Library has been dedicated to bringing people and information together within the legal community. As the nation’s oldest law library, it is committed to providing value through its outstanding service, comprehensive access to legal and other information, relevant educational programs, the latest technologies, and a hospitable place to work and visit.

The Oyez Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.

Congressional Research Service Reports collected by Stanford University, Social Sciences Resource Group. Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a think tank that provides research reports to members of Congress. However, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) does not provide direct public access to its reports. Reports also collected at http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/.

The purpose of this site is to provide information from and about the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government. This site is maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the Federal Judiciary.

Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere.[Details]

WorldCat is a catalog of library collections worldwide. WorldCat highlights publications available at Villanova University. Other items can be requested via an inter-library loan request form.WorldCat Step-by-Step is a self-paced interactive tutorial for students new to this resource.[Details]

Articles -databases

Alternative Press Index is a bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 300 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals. API provides access to the emerging theories and practices of radical social change with coverage both international and interdisciplinary. Coverage begins in 1991.

A complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. The database also includes citations and links to book and media reviews.America: History & Lifeis a self-paced interactive tutorial for students new to this resource.

A gateway to the digital editions of the papers of major figures of the early republic: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Dolley Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry.

A resource that aggregates dispersed content about theory and research in international affairs. CIAO includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, full-text journal articles and policy briefs, and teaching materials including original case studies written by leading international affairs experts, course packs of background readings for history and political science classes, and special features. Advanced searching capability is present and results can be sorted by date and relevance. CIAO also provides links to international affairs Internet sources. All sections of CIAO are updated monthly.

The Almanac offers original narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session since 1945. Arranged thematically, CQ Almanac organizes, distills, and cross-indexes for permanent reference the full year in Congress and in national politics. Authoritative coverage of the people, elections, legislation, and controversies in the U.S. Congress. Includes Comprehensive roll call votes for all major legislation tables, graphs, and charts. Browse by subject, decade, or by a particular year's table of content. Use "Policy Tracker" to explore a specific policy topic and see how it has changed over the years

Combines many Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Press resources for research in American government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs. Access is provided to Congress and the Nation (1945-2004), Historic Documents Series (1972 -), Political Handbook of the World, Supreme Court Yearbook (1989 -), Vital Statistics on American Politics and the Washington Information Directory, and more.

Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Voting & Elections Collection is organized into six categories of presidential elections, congressional elections, gubernatorial elections, campaigns and elections, political parties, and voters and demographics, generally covering from 1789 to the present. Includes candidate and office histories, seat status and competition, special elections, maps, bibliographies, encyclopedic information, chronology, definitions and sources and web links. Supports scholarly research in political science, particularly American Government, campaigns and elections, Congress, the presidency, and American history.

CMMC offers cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 570 journals, and selected coverage of nearly 200 more, for a combined coverage of more than 770 titles; furthermore, this database includes full text for over 450 journals. CMMC incorporates the content of CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association) and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Penn State) along with numerous other journals in communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields of study.

Provides access to every facet of U.S. Legislative activity: hearings transcripts and submitted testimony, committee reports, bills, public laws, congressional member public interest group ratings, selected committee prints, congressional documents, the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, and the U.S. Code.

A primary source database that ranges from the years immediately following World War II through the 1970s. Major foreign and domestic events from these years are covered such as: the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, the civil rights movement, and many others. After researchers visit presidential libraries and request documents, the libraries photocopy and provide them for filming, scanning, indexing and abstracting. Updated irregularly.

Commerce Reports, Country Reports and Market Indicators and Forecasts from the Economist Intelligence Unit offer monthly and annual in depth analysis, data and ratings for the infrastructure, demographics, political scene, domestic economy, foreign trade, including regional and industrial sector breakdowns for over 200 countries.

Access the digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century. With full-text searching of approximately 26 million pages, the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.

General scholarly legal database with current U.S., foreign and international law, law review articles, legal classics and historical documents. Provides fully-searchable and image-based text of over 500 law journals, Supreme Court Reports, Treaties in Force, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1977-2003) and the Federal Register (1936-1994).

An annotated reference guide to the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present. Provides indexing of more than 2,300 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955 as well as book reviews and dissertations.A Short Introduction to Historical Abstractsis a self-paced interactive tutorial for students new to this resource.

Provides an accessible and invaluable source of information of electronic archives to leading journals of opinion. Search the full text of over 740 years of archives including Harpers Magazine, The New Republic, The Nation, Commentary, NACLA, Commonweal, American Spectator, National Review and The New York Review of Books. An invaluable resource, providing in-depth analysis of topics such as the cold war, the Arab-Israeli conflict, American foreign policy, defense, the Supreme Court, affirmative action, welfare, crime, immigration, religion, education, art, literature, militarism, human rights violations, environmental destruction, classical music, and much more.

Oxford bibliographies in political science and international relations are designed to be starting points for research and offer peer-reviewed, annotated bibliographies. The bibliographies can be searched separately or together, by keyword or advanced search. Search responses can include books, journal articles, web resources, multimedia, primary documents, forthcoming and related articles. Journal citations are linked to full-text via the “find it” link and book citations are linked to Falvey via the WorldCat link.

The Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) International database contains references for over half a million journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed. In addition to English, some of the indexed materials are published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and other languages.

First-time users must register. The Roper Center has a large archive of public opinion information. It contains nearly 500,000 questions and responses from national public opinion surveys going back to 1935. Among the many survey sources are Gallup, Harris, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. The archive includes full datasets required to conduct bivariate and multivariate analyses using RoperExpress.

Provides access to current bibliographic information and cited references from the journal literature in the physical and social sciences. Search by article title word, journal title, author, cited author or reference, or address word (e.g. author's institution). Coverage begins 1956 to present.

The historical Washington Post offers full-text searching of every available issue of the Washington Post and Washington Post/Times-Herald title variations, from 1877 -1996, with digital page and image reproductions. Historical coverage will expand annually, by one year. For more recent Washington Post articles, see Lexis Nexis Academic coverage (1977 - Present).

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (WPSA) provides abstracts and indexing of the international literature of political science and international relations, along with complementary fields, including international law and public administration/policy. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,500+ serials publications and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers. The database is simultaneously searchable with other ProQuest databases such as ProQuest Newspapers.

State Information

Congress/Senate Information:

Congress.gov - Presented by the Library of Congress, Congress.gov is the official site for federal legislative information from the U.S. Congress and related agencies.The site replaces the nearly 20-year-old THOMAS.gov. site.

Senate.gov – Official Senate site compiled under the authority and direction of the Secretary of the Senate.

Project Vote Smart - Project Vote Smart (PVS) is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in six basic areas, providing free, unbiased, in-depth information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting.

Select websites:

Project Vote Smart - Project Vote Smart (PVS) is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in six basic areas, providing free, unbiased, in-depth information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting.

State & Local Government on the Net – an official State, County & City Government Website Locator. (Although these pages are updated frequently, they are not as up-to-date as the information contained on individual state and local government servers). This site includes a state Secretary of State (SOS) page. The state Secretary of State is responsible for a wide range of government activities and often the state's main election official and operates the office that registers candidates. Citizens can usually get voter registration and poll location information on websites of the Secretary of State. SOS websites often provide access to searchable election voter and candidate registration information.

USA.gov – Links to the government website for each state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories and associated states.

GovEngine.com – a commercial site leading to federal, state and local information

National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) - A bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation's 50 states, its commonwealths and territories; founded to improve the quality and effectiveness of state legislatures, promote policy innovation and communication among state legislature and ensure state legislatures a strong, cohesive voice in the federal system. Includes: Elections and Campaigns section with state votes.

Ballotpedia – An interactive almanac of U.S. politics, from the Lucy Burns Institute, providing recent news on elections and politics in your state

American FactFinder - American FactFinder is a web site used to distribute data collected by the United States Census Bureau. It provides data for the lowest level of geography, to largest geographic entities, from zip code areas, to Census tracts.

State & Local Government Finance - Statistics on revenue, expenditure, debt, and assets (cash and security holdings) for governments. There are statistics for the 50 state areas and the District of Columbia, as well as a national summary. Statistics also are available by level of government – state, local, and state plus local aggregates.

County Business and Demographics - Includes data from the County Business Patterns (CBP) program and the 2010 Census. CBP data for 2012 were released in May, 2014.

Brennan Center for Justice - A non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on the fundamental issues of democracy and justice. Work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from racial justice in criminal law to Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) - In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections. For brief video introduction click here.

Brookings Institution on Campaign Finance - The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. conducts and reports quality, independent research and provides recommendations based on that research.

Center for Public Integrity - One of the country's oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations, it attempts to enhance democracy by revealing abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of trust by powerful public and private institutions by using the tools of investigative journalism. Profiles PACs, ad buys by super PACs, election donors and nonprofit election supporters.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports - Congressional Research Service Reports collected by Stanford University, Social Sciences Resource Group. Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a think tank that provides research reports to members of Congress. However, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) does not provide direct public access to its reports. Reports also collected at http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/.

Newspapers

Search a selection of periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically significant periodicals.[Details]

The Associated Press, is one of the world's largest collections of historical and contemporary imagery. AP's mission is to be the essential global news network, providing distinctive news services of the highest quality, reliability and objectivity with reports that are accurate, balanced and informed. For more than a century, AP photographers have captured the greatest moments in history, news, sports and entertainment.[Details]

Search America's historic newspapers pages from 1860-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.[Details]

Contains full-text of more than 11,000 articles from over 2500 issues of both Northern and Southern newspapers published between Nov. 1, 1860 and Apr. 30, 1865. Contains news articles, eye-witness and official reports of battles, editorials, advertisements, biographies and over 700 images of battlefield maps and illustrations.[Details]

A comprehensive retrospective digest of the news presented to the Soviet and Russian public for more than a half-century, from the beginnings of the Cold War through the emergence of Russia in the new balance of power. Each week it presents a selection of Russian-language press materials, carefully translated into English. The translations are intended for use in teaching and research. They are therefore presented as documentary materials without elaboration or comment, and state the opinions and views of the original authors, not of the publisher of the journal.[Details]

The New York Times is a unique full-image archive that brings you the entire historical run of The New York Times, in-depth coverage of science and politics. It offers complete coverage from 1851 to the present with the exception of the most current two years. Includes classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary.[Details]

Includes access to the full text of over 1,300 newspapers, news websites and blogs including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, plus other important U.S., international and minority interest papers.[Details]

The Times is the "world's newspaper of record" and covers all major international historical events from the French Revolution to the Falkland War. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching. It is a digital reproduction, cover to cover, of the paper in PDF files.[Details]

The historical Washington Post offers full-text searching of every available issue of the Washington Post and Washington Post/Times-Herald title variations, from 1877 -1996, with digital page and image reproductions. Historical coverage will expand annually, by one year. For more recent Washington Post articles, see Lexis Nexis Academic coverage (1977 - Present).[Details]

24-hour English-language news and current affairs TV channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar. The station broadcasts news features and analysis, documentaries, live debates, current affairs, business, technology, and sports. The channel aims to provide both a regional voice and a global perspective to a potential world audience of over one billion English speakers who don't have an Anglo-American worldview.

A daily email newsletter offering a concise, translated briefs covering some of the key political, cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing in the media of the 22 Arab countries, Iran and the Arab Diaspora.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports (FBIS) provides perspectives about more than 200 countries outside of the United States. Features transcripts of foreign news broadcasts translated into English from materials selected by the CIA for distribution to U.S. policymakers and security analysts.

Media Collections

Vietnam: A Television History was a landmark documentary series produced by WGBH. This collection contains most of the materials gathered and created for the 1983 series, as well as additional Vietnam-related materials from the WGBH archive. Vietnam: A Television History was one of the last WGBH series produced entirely on film. Starting in 2008, materials were reconstructed, transferred, and digitized for preservation and access.[Details]

Provides online access to unique and historically important content produced by the Boston public television and radio station, WGBH. The ever-expanding site contains video, audio, images, searchable transcripts, and resource management tools, all of which are available for individual and classroom learning. Includes special "Vietnam Online" and "civil rights" collections.[Details]

Since 1998, the Wisconsin Advertising Project (WiscAds) has undertaken research initiatives to document how candidates, political parties and special interest groups communicate with voters. WiscAds studied campaign advertisements in the nation’s 100 largest media markets by collecting and analyzing all political advertisements aired on broadcast and cable stations. Database made possible via technology developed by the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), now contains information on the airing of over 1.5 million ads between 1998 and 2002, see The Data. Data needs to be requested through an online request form but historic ads can be freely viewed.[Details]

Web Sites

American Founding Era (Rotunda)A gateway to the digital editions of the papers of major figures of the early republic: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Dolley Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry.

American Presidency ProjectThe American Presidency Project, was established in 1999 as a collaboration between John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The archives contain 102,014 documents related to the study of the Presidency.

Avalon Project - Yale Law SchoolDigital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. Collections include ancient to modern times, major documents collections, Project Diana - An Online Human Rights Archive and The International Military Tribunal for Germany - A Document Collection.

During the 1970s, CIA historian Jack Pfeiffer wrote a Top Secret multi-volume history of 1961’s Bay of Pigs intervention in Cuba. Before his death, Pfeiffer sued unsuccessfully to de-classify some of the History. One volume is available at National Archives’ JFK Assassination Records Collection at this site maintained by Dr. David.M. Barrett. Click for PDF files with the Introduction and Chapters 1 through 8. (Endnotes and Appendices are not posted here, but are available with the History in Box 1 of the “CIA Miscellaneous” sub-collection.)

Brennan Center for Justice - redistricting guidesA non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on the fundamental issues of democracy and justice. Work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from racial justice in criminal law to Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism.

Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP)A unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is nationally recognized as the leading source of scholarly research and current data about American women’s political participation. Its mission is to promote greater knowledge and understanding about women's participation in politics and government and to enhance women's influence and leadership in public life.

Chatham HouseChatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a world-leading source of independent analysis, informed debate and influential ideas on how to build a prosperous and secure world for all. Produces independent and rigorous analysis of critical global, regional and country-specific challenges and opportunities.

Cold War International History ProjectThe CWIHP "disseminates new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War, in particular new findings from previously inaccessible sources on "the other side" -- the former Communist world"

Conflict BarometerThe Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) at the Department of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg annually publishes the Conflict Barometer, which describes recent trends in conflict development, escalations, settlements.

Constitution FinderThis database [from the University of Richmond School of Law] offers constitutions, charters, amendments, and other related documents. Nations of the world are linked to their constitutional text posted somewhere on the Internet.

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)The CFR is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.

Country Reports on TerrorismU.S. law requires the Secretary of State to provide these annual reports to Congress, by April 30 of each year, reporting on terrorism with regard to those countries and groups meeting criteria set forth in the legislation. Replaces -Patterns of Global Terrorism-

European Union - Summaries of EU legislationPresents the main aspects of European Union (EU) legislation. It provides approximately 3 000 summaries of European legislation, divided into 32 subject areas corresponding to the activities of the European Union.

FedStats"The gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. federal agencies."

Federal News ServiceProvides immediate verbatim transcripts of government briefings, speeches, press conferences and other news-making events to the many domestic and international news bureaus in Washington, D. C. FNS transcribes some Congressional hearings, National Press Club speeches, and significant events such as conferences at Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment and broadcast interviews with opinion leaders.

Federation of American Scientists (FAS)An independent, nonpartisan think tank, non-profit membership organization, dedicated to providing rigorous, objective, evidence-based analysis and practical policy recommendations on national and international security issues connected to applied science and technology. Founded in 1945 by many of the scientists who built the first atomic bombs,the founding mission of FAS was to prevent nuclear war. Includes reports, blogs, event information, publications, resources, and Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports.

Financial Tracking Service (FTS)FTS is managed by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). All FTS data are provided by donors or recipient organisations. FTS is a global, real-time database which records all reported international hummanitarian aid(including that for NGOs and the Red Cross / Red Crescent Movement, bilateral aid, in-kind aid, and private donations) and indicates to what extent populations in crisis receive humanitarian aid in proportion to needs.

First 3.0FIRST contains up-to-date, documented information in areas such as: conflicts, arms transfers and military expenditure, hard facts on states and international organizations, economic and social statistics and chronologies. FIRST is a project run by SIPRI and ISN with cooperation of Hiroshima University and the Gulf Research Center.

Founders OnlineFrom the National Archives,its National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), and in agreement with The University of Virginia Press, freely available historical documents of the Founders of the United States of America. You will be able to read and search through thousands of records from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and see firsthand the growth of democracy and the birth of the Republic.

Global Solidarity NetworkTo build global solidarity, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Catholic Higher Education have adopted modern information technology tools to make social justice education more accessible to students, faculty, and CRS staff working in the field. Once registered as GSN members, participants can "study ebroad" gaining access to social justice issue information, discussion forums, and live web-conference meetings.

Global Terrorism Database (GTD)An open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2011 (with additional annual updates planned for the future). Includes systematic data on domestic as well as transnational and international terrorist incidents. For each GTD incident, information is available on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and--when identifiable--the group or individual responsible.

Globalization 101"Globalization101.org is an Internet resource offered by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to promote a greater understanding of globalization."

Human Security Report Project - HSRPThe HSRP tracks global and regional trends in organized violence, their causes and consequences. Research findings and analyses are published in the Human Security Report, Human Security Brief series, and the miniAtlas of Human Security. The HSRP also produces a range of online data, research, and news resources covering a broad range of global security issues. All publications and e-resources are available free of charge.

ICMAICMA is the professional and educational organization for chief appointed managers, administrators, and assistants in cities, towns, counties, and regional entities throughout the world. Since 1914, ICMA has provided technical and management assistance, training, and information resources to its members and the local government community. The management decisions made by ICMA's 9,000 members affect nearly 185 million individuals in thousands of communities--from small towns with populations of a few hundred to metropolitan areas serving several million. ICMA's mission is to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional local government management worldwide.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) offers several time series and other types of aggregate data that consist mainly of raw data derived from surveys, censuses and administrative records. The data holdings contain studies and files that cover a wide range of social science areas such as population, economics, education, health, social and political behavior, social and political attitudes, history, crime, aging, and substance abuse. Click here for searching tips.

International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting CentreA specialized division of the International Chamber Of Commerce (ICC), IMB was created in 1992. One of the IMB’s principal areas of expertise is in the suppression of piracy. The Centre is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It maintains a round-the-clock watch on the world’s shipping lanes, reporting pirate attacks to local law enforcement and issuing warnings about piracy hotspots to shipping. The IMB is a non-profit making organisation, established in 1981 to act as a focal point in the fight against all types of maritime crime and malpractice.

International relations and security network (ISN)One of the world’s leading open access information services for international relations (IR) and security professionals. ISN is an online project of the Center for Security Studies (CSS), at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). It is jointly funded by the Swiss Department for Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) and ETH Zurich.

START is a university-based research center committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and around the world. Headquartered at the University of Maryland, START supports research efforts of leading social scientists at more than 50 academic and research institutions, each of whom is conducting original investigations into fundamental questions about terrorism.

National Criminal Justice Reference ServiceContains summaries of more than 215,000 criminal justice publications, including federal, state and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles and unpublished research. Topic coverage includes corrections, courts, crime, crime prevention, drugs, justice system, juvenile justice, law enforcement, victims, and more.

National Security ArchiveThe National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

National Security Archive - Electronic Briefing BooksNational Security Archive Electronic Briefing Books provide online access to critical declassified records on issues including U.S. national security, foreign policy, diplomatic and military history, intelligence policy, and more. Updated frequently, the Electronic Briefing Books represent just a small sample of the documents in the Archive.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) ReportsCongressional Research Service Reports collected by Stanford University, Social Sciences Resource Group. Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a think tank that provides research reports to members of Congress. However, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) does not provide direct public access to its reports. Reports also collected at http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/.

OpenSecrets.orgBrought to you by the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group tracking money in U.S. Linked tabs include politicians & elections, influence & lobbying (to search industry and issues) and news & analysis.

Openthegovernment.orgWorks to broaden the base of national, state and local organizations active on right-to-know and anti-secrecy issues; advance the right to know what government is doing at the federal and state levels through legislation and other means; and shine an even brighter spotlight on government secrecy efforts. A Secrecy Report Card has been produced by OpenTheGovernment.org on an annual basis since 2003.(see http://www.openthegovernment.org/sites/default/files/otg/SecrecyRC_2010.pdf)

Policy Agendas ProjectTool for tracking policy changes in the United States. Users can trace, graph and download policy changes in many different arenas. Datasets allow users to immediately download and access full text source policy documents from linked websites. By providing direct information on the sources of the measures of policy changes, this website allows users to access the original material, which provides the historical context of policy choice. A long-term objective of the Project is to provide a systematic gateway to a virtual digital policy library through a ‘guided search’ function.

Political Advocacy Groups/LobbyistsAll national "cause lobbyist" organizations are considered for this list. As defined by Alan Rosenthal in his 1993 book The Third House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States a "cause lobbyist" advocates for or against a particular cause like environmentalism or feminism instead of on behalf of a corporation. Limiting this list will enable it to be updated more often and provide information to interest the general public as a whole.

Political Violence Against AmericansPolitical Violence Against Americans, formerly Significant Incidents of Political Violence Against Americans, is produced by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Office of Intelligence and Threat nalysis (DS/DSS/ITA) to provide readers with a comprehensive picture of the broad spectrum of political violence that American citizens and interests have encountered abroad on an annual basis.

NOTE: This series was not produced for the years 2003-2007.

Politics & Elections - Pew Forum on Religion & Public LifeThe Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, launched in 2001, seeks to promote a deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs.The Pew Forum conducts surveys, demographic analyses and other social science research on important aspects of religion and public life in the U.S. and around the world.

Project Vote SmartProject Vote Smart (PVS) is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in six basic areas, providing free, unbiased, in-depth information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting.

ReliefWebReliefWeb was launched in October 1996. It is part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Collects, reports, maps, curates country and disaster content and facilitates action through understanding and helping inform organizations.

Social Networks and Archival Context Project (The)The SNAC project is addressing a longstanding research challenge: discovering, locating, and using distributed historical records. SNAC aims to not only make the records more easily discovered and accessed but also, and at the same time, build an unprecedented resource that provides access to the socio-historical contexts (which includes people, families, and corporate bodies) in which the records were created.

Statistical Abstract of the United StatesSite provides access to current 2012 PDF and past editions. Includes everything from government spending to the environment to communications. It is a most comprehensive one-volume reference source on the Nation's economic and social condition.

U. S. Election Statistics: A Resource GuideThis Library of Congress resource guide includes online and print resources containing U.S. election statistics for both federal and state elections. Most of the online resources listed below are freely available on the Internet. A few of the online databases are available by subscription only.

U.S. Department of State - Electronic Research CollectionThe Electronic Research Collection (ERC) is a partnership between the United States Department of State and the Federal Depository Library at the Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). ERC is responsible for electronically archived information products produced by State Department from 1990 to 1997.

Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008"Voting America examines the evolution of presidential politics in the United States across the span of American history. The project offers a wide spectrum of cinematic and interactive visualizations of how American voted in the presidential elections at the county level over the past 164 years. You can also find expert analysis and commentary videos that discuss some of the most interesting and significant trends in American political history."

Wisconsin Advertising ProjectSince 1998, the Wisconsin Advertising Project (WiscAds) has undertaken research initiatives to document how candidates, political parties and special interest groups communicate with voters. WiscAds studied campaign advertisements in the nation’s 100 largest media markets by collecting and analyzing all political advertisements aired on broadcast and cable stations. Database made possible via technology developed by the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), now contains information on the airing of over 1.5 million ads between 1998 and 2002, see The Data. Data needs to be requested through an online request form but historic ads can be freely viewed.

Women in Leadership - Worldwide guide"The site contains lists of female Heads of State listed by country, a chronological list of Women in Power from B.C. 3000, female Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Defence and Ministers by country, female Chairpersons of Parliament, female Governors, Premiers and local Leaders by country, female Party Leaders for each country, a chronological list of female Presidential Candidates, Ambassadors to the United Nations and first female ambassadors for each country, lists of women's ordination to priesthood and female bishops and finally a list of female Danish leaders. (See entries to the left)."

Statistics

From the US Census Bureau, several databases of demographic and economic information, including Building Permits Data; International Trade Data; Census Tract Street Locator; Detailed Occupation by Race, Hispanic Origin and Sex; and USA Counties Data.[Details]

Search by U.S. summary or by state geographic areas: nation, region, division, state, county, county subdivision, place, consolidated city, metropolitan area, American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area/Hawaiian Home Land, and congressional districts.[Details]

Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets.[Details]

Provides public access to the following collections currently available in FDsys: Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993 to Present), Congressional Bills (103rd Congress to Present), Congressional Documents (104th Congress to Present), Congressional Hearings (105th Congress to Present), Congressional Record (1994 to Present), Congressional Reports (104th Congress to Present), Federal Register (1994 to Present) and Public and Private Laws (104th Congress to Present). FDsys will eventually replace GPOAccess.[Details]

A compendium of statistics from over 1000 sources last updated in 1975 and has been expanded to include over 37,000 data series. Topics ranging from migration and health to crime and the Confederate States of America are each placed in historical context by a recognized expert in the field. The fully searchable and downloadable edition will permit users to graph individual tables and create customized tables and spreadsheets reflecting their own areas of interest.[Details]

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) offers several time series and other types of aggregate data that consist mainly of raw data derived from surveys, censuses and administrative records. The data holdings contain studies and files that cover a wide range of social science areas such as population, economics, education, health, social and political behavior, social and political attitudes, history, crime, aging, and substance abuse. Click here for searching tips.[Details]

Tutorial for Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research which has holdings that include several time series and other types of aggregate data; its holdings consist mainly of raw data derived from surveys, censuses, and administrative records. The data holdings contain some 6,000 studies and 450,000 files that cover a wide range of social science areas such as population, economics, education, health, social and political behavior, social and political attitudes, history, crime, aging, and substance abuse.[Details]

Tool for tracking policy changes in the United States. Users can trace, graph and download policy changes in many different arenas. Datasets allow users to immediately download and access full text source policy documents from linked websites. By providing direct information on the sources of the measures of policy changes, this website allows users to access the original material, which provides the historical context of policy choice. A long-term objective of the Project is to provide a systematic gateway to a virtual digital policy library through a ‘guided search’ function.[Details]

The PIPC (Public Institutions and Public Choice Program) codes each roll call from the 83rd to the 108th Congress for vote type, i.e. rule, amendment, final passage etc. as well as issue type. Also included are the vote margins. See the accompanying (Adobe) codebook for explanations of dataset codes. [Details]

Indexing and abstracting (with select full text from 2007) of statistical resources from U.S. state government, business and research institute statistical publications. Tables for U.S. government and business reports.[Details]

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)provides search and download capability for a variety of statistical resources of the UN System.[Details]

Since 1998, the Wisconsin Advertising Project (WiscAds) has undertaken research initiatives to document how candidates, political parties and special interest groups communicate with voters. WiscAds studied campaign advertisements in the nation’s 100 largest media markets by collecting and analyzing all political advertisements aired on broadcast and cable stations. Database made possible via technology developed by the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), now contains information on the airing of over 1.5 million ads between 1998 and 2002, see The Data. Data needs to be requested through an online request form but historic ads can be freely viewed.[Details]

Biographies

Biographical resource on more than 18,000 people from all eras who have influenced and shaped American history and culture. The ANB Online features thousands of illustrations, more than 80,000 hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and powerful search capabilities. All articles originally included in the ANB Online were on biographical subjects who died before the end of 1995. Articles on important figures who have died since 1995 are being added in quarterly updates.[Details]

A vast collection of genealogical data which traces the history of millions of individuals going in some cases as far back as 1300. The collection consists of census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more.[Details]

A reference work providing almost 60,000 specially-written signed biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of the British past, from the earliest times to the end of the year 2009. State-of-the-art search options, extensive internal cross-referencing, access to articles from the original DNB, and navigation by "themes" combine with rigorous research and scholarship to make the Oxford DNB one of the most innovative and important reference sites available online.[Details]

The SNAC project is addressing a longstanding research challenge: discovering, locating, and using distributed historical records. SNAC aims to not only make the records more easily discovered and accessed but also, and at the same time, build an unprecedented resource that provides access to the socio-historical contexts (which includes people, families, and corporate bodies) in which the records were created.[Details]

"The site contains lists of female Heads of State listed by country, a chronological list of Women in Power from B.C. 3000, female Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Defence and Ministers by country, female Chairpersons of Parliament, female Governors, Premiers and local Leaders by country, female Party Leaders for each country, a chronological list of female Presidential Candidates, Ambassadors to the United Nations and first female ambassadors for each country, lists of women's ordination to priesthood and female bishops and finally a list of female Danish leaders. (See entries to the left)."[Details]

Handbooks

Authoritative source of information about members of Congress, their districts, the governors and the states. The Web site is organized according to people, districts and states, similar to the book. The most recent profile of a person, along with biographical data and voting behavior.
A detailed description of a congressional district, along with several tables of demographic data, the district's 2008 presidential results and its Cook rating.
Also includes a history and analysis of the politics of a state. The state pages also contain 2008 presidential election results, legislature party breakdowns, and analyses of demographic shifts that could affect redistricting for 2012.[Details]